


Bedtime

by sunalso



Series: Season 6 Bits and Pieces [6]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canada, F/M, Jemma is off saving the world, damn it, this is the only explaination I'll accept
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 21:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20142415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/pseuds/sunalso
Summary: S6. Set immediately after the finale. Fitz has trouble with bedtime.





	Bedtime

The plan had been much easier when it had been just theory, and not Jemma off to save the world while he tried to figure out life in a new place.

One she couldn’t know because if she got caught, she wasn’t willing to risk Rosie and Thomas.

And she’d been the one to go because they’d all agreed that Jemma was the better one to lead the team out of the two of them.

He almost felt bad for everyone, Jemma had look bloody brassed off as she’d left that morning. They were getting an upset mama-bear.

Fitz had ended up in the quinjet, jumping with the children to their new home. The rolling prairies of western Canada didn’t have to be home for that long, but it’d do for now. It was somewhere he believed Jemma would never imagine him going.

His part should have been easy. Get the coordinates set for the Zephyr, which Jemma didn’t know, and poof, there she went. From his perspective, it wouldn’t be that long before she’d be back. He just had to settle the wee-ones into the house--a double-wide mobile home near absolutely nothing—and wait until Jemma returned.

Their routines were put on the fridge, favorite stuffed animals were placed in new beds, and the dinner he made for 4-year-old Rosie and two-year-old Thomas was spaghetti, which was a favorite for all of them.

Fitz thought he was doing a bang-up job right until bedtime.

When the tears had started.

Rosie stamped her tiny foot, and her brown curls bobbed. “I want Mummy. She has to read to me.”

“It was Daddy’s turn,” he said. They usually switched off who did the bedtime stories. “Mummy read to you last night.”

Rosie’s lower lip poked out. “I want Mummy!”

“We talked about this.” Fitz raked a hand through his hair. “Remember? Mummy won’t be gone that long. Just a few days.”

Rosie responded with a wail, and her little brother followed suit.

Terrific.

It didn’t help that he felt like crying too. Jemma had been right there beside him again for years now. It turned out that instead of healing the wounds from being apart from her, it’d just scabbed them over. Her being gone again had ripped that scab off, and the wounds were gaping wide.

He wiped at his cheeks. “I miss Mummy, too, okay, Rosie?”

Picking up the sobbing Thomas, Fitz held him tight as the little boy squirmed and kicked his legs. His hair was much straighter than his sister’s but just as thick, and Fitz buried his nose in it, inhaling the scent of warm little boy. He had to get control of himself.

Rosie attached herself to his leg.

Right, this was fun, standing in the hallway while they all cried over Jemma being gone.

“Rosie,” he said, managing to sound mostly normal. “Have we completed the bedtime checklist?”

“Don’t know.”

“Go get your copy and let’s look.”

Sniffing, she darted off to get it, and Fitz mentally ran through Thomas’ list. He was crying in little hiccups now and hopefully would be soon asleep. Fitz looked at his son’s room, with its racing-car bed, then turned and walked to the master bedroom.

It was beige carpeted and white-walled, and didn’t look like home and smelled like paint. Fitz absolutely hated it.

Rosie came back with her laminated bedtime checklist. She was entirely her mother’s daughter, not just because she could read anything with ease at four years old, but she liked order and following rules.

Fitz pulled back the quilt and sheet on the king bed and deposited a sleeping Thomas onto the middle of the mattress. He squirmed until he was on his back with his arms and legs spread out, and Fitz smiled. He’d driven Jemma crazy when she’d been pregnant with him. Instead of staying curled up like babies were supposed to in the womb, he’d insisted on spreading out as much as possible, bruising ribs and kicking Jemma’s liver in the process. When he’d been born, he’d immediately sprawled everywhere. He cried if you swaddled him.

Jemma called him her little starfish.

Fitz wiped at his eyes, and a stern Rosie waved the checklist at him. “Teeth.”

“Of course, let’s brush our teeth.”

In the bathroom, she climbed onto a stool—Fitz was very impressed how well the contractor had done setting things up, though considering how much he paid, it’d better be perfect—and opened the toothpaste. He let her dollop the pink, glittery toothpaste on his brush as well, and made funny faces at her as they brushed.

By the end, Rosie was giggling, though she grew quiet when Fitz picked her up.

He carried her to the big bed and curled up with her beside him. “I still miss Mummy,” she said, playing with the ends of her hair.

“Me too, but she loves you, Thomas, and Daddy so much she agreed to go do something very important to keep us safe.”

“And bring home friends?”

“Yes, sweets.” He kissed her nose. “Mummy is very good at that. Before you were born, Daddy got lost, and Mummy had to find me.”

“Did she find you?”

Fitz thought Rosie’s existence should prove that Jemma had, in fact, found him, but Rosie looked so worried he couldn’t laugh.

“Mummy did. She had to be strong and brave, but she never gave up. And she won’t give up now until she’s back home with us, because when Mummy loves someone, she does everything to keep them safe.”

Fitz squeezed his eyes closed for a few seconds until a little four-year-old hand patted his cheek. It smelled of kiddie toothpaste. “It’s okay, Daddy. We can miss Mummy together. Sadness gets better when it’s shared.”

Rosie was sometimes so much a little Jemma it hurt.

“You’re right.” He put a hand on her back. “Let’s try to sleep, so we’re a day closer to Mummy being home.”

“Okay.” She closed her eyes and was out in less than a minute, her hands tucked under her chin.

Fitz didn’t think sleep would be so accommodating to him.

Every time she’d been away from him pressed painfully on his chest. They were meant to be together. Always. Side by side the whole damn time.

A tiny foot smacked his kidney, and Fitz grunted.

Well, at least this time she’d left two bits of herself behind.

It had to be enough until she was in his arms again.

It had to.


End file.
